New leadership program for Canadian women in agriculture and agri-food industry

Oct 20, 2021

Guelph, ON – A new course beginning in January aims to open more doors for women to management and leadership positions in Canada’s agriculture and agri-food industry. The Empowering Lasting Leadership Excellence (ELLE) program, offered by Agri-Food Management Excellence (AME) Inc., is designed by women for women. It promises to be an inclusive leadership building experience with a focus on developing technical skills to improve business management while building a network through cohort learning.

AME has been delivering management courses to Canadian farmers and people working in the agriculture industry for nearly a decade. Its flagship program, CTEAM, helps farmers develop strategic and operating plans for their farm business. Other courses include Price Risk Management Using Futures & Options and Managing Investment Costs of Machinery. All AME programs are designed to develop and strengthen farm business management skills to empower farmers and agricultural industry leaders to realize their vision. The ELLE program follows this mandate with an emphasis on improving leadership capacity for women.

The ELLE program will be delivered over 12 months, beginning January 2022, across Canada. Participants will be able to gather in person at regional meeting spaces to attend virtual speaker presentations. As a national program, additional virtual events will allow ELLE participants to connect, interact and learn with other women locally and across the country.

To accommodate participants’ different levels of experience, course components are divided into two streams: one for those just getting started with a few years of experience, and the advanced stream, for those who have more than five years of experience. Course topics include strategy, finance and risk management, marketing and branding, communication and leadership. AME welcomes diversity by encouraging women of all ages and backgrounds to get involved in the ELLE program.

“Agriculture is changing rapidly and growing,” says Heather Broughton, president of AME. “Women are actively involved in an ever-increasing number of leadership, management and ownership roles in farming and value-added enterprises. The ELLE program will provide opportunities in skill development and networking for all women entrepreneurs in agriculture and agri-food across Canada.”

Source : AME

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.